Fisher knows the true classic is Wooden

ANAHEIM - The San Diego State men's basketball team gets a brief
cameo on a grand stage today, facing a top opponent in one of the
college game's most prestigious early-season events.

Aztecs head coach Steve Fisher is glad for the opportunity to
play Saint Mary's at the Honda Center in the John R. Wooden
Classic, to be sure - especially given the man whose name lends the
event its magnitude.

At 97, John Wooden is nothing less than a living legend. Every
college hoops fan worth his sneakers knows about the Wizard of
Westwood's 620 wins at UCLA -- including a record 88 in a row --
and unprecedented 10 national championships.

But to Fisher, that's just skimming the surface of the man's
greatness.

"He's a caring, compassionate, giving person when nobody sees
him and no victories are involved," Fisher said. "He just gives so
much of himself to other people. For a man that's been this
successful to be willing to kind of take time, you would hope that
everybody would step back and be a little more aware that those are
the kinds of things that mean so much."

Fisher has crossed paths with Wooden on a handful of occasions.
Early in his career, he was starry-eyed as he made sure to get an
autograph on his copy of Wooden's famed Pyramid of Success.

Yet it was their first lengthy conversation that sticks out for
Fisher; one that gave him real insights into Wooden's true nature
as a man who cares about people. It came while he was at Michigan,
after one of the darker moments in his coaching career.

The 1993 national championship game will always be remembered
less as a victory for North Carolina than as the game in which
Michigan star Chris Webber called a timeout with his team trailing
by two points with 11 seconds left. Alas, the Wolverines had none
to take, resulting in a infamous technical foul that clinched the
victory for the Tar Heels.

In the wake of the embarrassment, Fisher and a mortified Webber
were scheduled to board a plane to Los Angeles to attend the
announcement of the Wooden Award (presented to the nation's top
basketball player), for which Webber was a finalist.

The trip almost didn't happen.

"(Webber) was embarrassed," Fisher recalled. "It wasn't 48 hours
later we had to fly from Detroit to L.A., and he said, 'I'm not
going.' Between his dad and I, we made him go."

It was in L.A. that Fisher got to speak with Wooden at length
for the first time and was blown away by the legend's graciousness.
He was even more impressed by what Wooden did for Webber.

Indiana's Calbert Cheaney won the award that year, but Webber
came away with much more.

"John was absolutely phenomenal with Chris," Fisher said. "He
spent a lot of time with me, but he took Chris for a half-hour, one
on one. … Afterwards (Webber) said it was the greatest experience
of (his) career so far, when Wooden talked to him."